


Badasses R Us

by badboy_fangirl



Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-29
Updated: 2012-10-29
Packaged: 2017-11-17 08:10:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/549427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badboy_fangirl/pseuds/badboy_fangirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Damon deals with the kids.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Badasses R Us

**Author's Note:**

> Post-episode fic for 4x03 "The Rager."

He meets Jeremy at the 'Stoner Pit,' trying very hard not to show his panic. The text message had only said, _911 @ school. Meet behind the Ag bldg @ the Stoner Pit_ , and he imagined Elena had eaten a room full of her classmates. But when he gets there, Jeremy is all animated about some vampire hunter guy who approached him.

It actually takes Damon a moment to realize it's the same guy who shot Tyler, and who stole venom from him as well. (Who shot Damon and _really_ pissed him off.) Jeremy babbles on about invisible ink tattoos and how the guy wants him to bring him a vampire.

"So you want to use me as bait?" he asks when the kid stops talking long enough to let him get a word in.

Jeremy blinks and shakes his head, momentarily stunned. "No. I just figured, you'd know what to do. You want me to come up with a plan? Because I totally will. I can be a badass."

Damon all but snorts into his flask of whiskey. He takes a small drink and thinks of offering it to Jeremy. (Suddenly, he can hear Ric in his head as clear as day. _We don't need another one of me, Damon._ )

"Here's what we'll do," he says instead. "You go back to class." Jeremy rolls his eyes. " _I'll_ go check out this guy's hiding place, _alone_. After school, you go out there and tell him you don't know any vamps. But don't seem too eager. Tell him you know a doctor who has a blood swapping deal with one. If he asks how you know that, tell him that Dr. Fell used to date your now-dead guardian, and he told you. Then get him to come to the hospital. I'll take care of everything else."

"So, you want me to lure him to the hospital?" Jeremy asks with an almost gleeful expression.

Damon eyes him skeptically. "Elena is so going to ream me for this. Yes, that's what I want you to do. But don't tell _anyone_ , okay? And if he threatens you, get outta there. Don't try to be a Big Damn Hero."

Jeremy rubs his hands together in anticipation. "I'll play it cool. You can count on me, Damon."

Damon gives him a smirk. "Like that time you hauled your sister to the hospital, and—" He stops himself. He's an ass, but he's not _that_ big of an ass. (Besides, he doesn't blame Jeremy. Of all the people responsible for Elena's death, Jeremy's way down the list.) "No, good. You do that, Jeremy. Just get him to the hospital. I'll take care of it."

Damon watches as the kid walks back into the school. Certain he won't follow him like a lost puppy, he heads out Route 13.

 

 

After he says good-bye to Meredith, and wrangles an agreement out of her that she'll help them trap the hunter in a storage room at the hospital, he goes home. He needs a new shirt, and a shower, and some blood. He also needs some backup for this meeting with Connor what's-his-name. 

_Ric, where are you when I really need you?_

He's not ready to ask Stefan for help, Caroline would probably tell him to go to hell, and Elena's too unpredictable at this point. That leaves him one vampire-werewolf hybrid that can actually be counted on. It helps that Tyler called him this morning to tell him about the venom extraction. Maybe he's trying to build a relationship of trust. This will be an excellent test to see if Jeremy is really the only reliable backup he's got now that Ric's gone.

Elena, in his room, making a mess, is not exactly what he's expecting. Nor is her obvious lie to him about looking for bourbon. 

Who does she think she's dealing with? Stefan? He's not an idiot.

The pissy look on her face, and a pair of his boxer briefs hanging from one of her fingers is irrationally arousing. Like everything about Elena. She breathes, he gets hard. That's why he has to harass her. He sees the way she looks at him, and he remembers pressing her against a pillar outside of Denver and he knows. 

It would be so much more now. And it was pretty damn good before.

She storms out of the room, muttering about the stake.

He finishes stripping his clothes off, and heads for the shower, but calls out, "Clean up this mess!"

 

 

Elena tears through stacks of books, and one drawer that must be Damon's junk drawer, because it's the only disorganized thing in his entire room. As she searches around, she can't help thinking that his bedroom is something out of Better Homes & Gardens. She remembers her mother always looking through those for decorating tips.

She smiles to herself, imagining her mom and Damon trading furniture positioning ideas.

Shaking her head of the odd thought, she's startled when he comes in. She didn't hear him, and that's one of the advantages to being a vampire. She needs to learn to focus more often, especially when she's trying not to get caught doing something.

Fortunately, the lie rolls off her tongue easily enough, because she does need bourbon, and lots of it to deal with Rebekah. Maybe a little liquid courage will make it super easy to kill her as well.

She feels like a wall of glass when Damon sees right through her, and she hates him. Hates him for knowing her so well, for never being fooled by anything she says or does. He's so infuriating, on every level, but when he jerks his shirt open and she sees the flash of bare chest, she can't help the way her breath catches.

He's so beautiful, and every small detail about him is sharper now. The dissection line down the middle of his abdomen, and the way his navel just seems to draw her eyes right to the fastening of his jeans... 

She jerks her eyes up and asks what happened, and when he informs her about a run-in with the vampire hunter, she remembers seeing the guy at school earlier. Of course, Damon already knows this too.

"Why were you talking to Jeremy?" she asks.

"Don't worry about it," he says.

"Damon," she says warningly. "Don't bring him into this."

"Perish the thought that he might actually be useful, Elena," he says, shrugging out of his bloody shirt.

She wants to argue more, but her eyes move involuntarily over his completely bare torso. She can see the light catching on the small smattering of hair around his nipples and it takes all her focus not to reach out and touch him.

But then he makes it easy for her by asking, "You stayin' for the show, or..." as he undoes the button on his jeans.

She can storm away easily enough, tossing behind her that she's going to find the White Oak Stake.

A moment later she hears his jeans come off, because now, of course, she's focused on the far away sounds, and he shouts, "Clean up this mess!"

She doesn't trust him, not when the shower comes on. She's been flashed by him before, and that was long before she made out with him or seemed to be as painfully aware as she is right now of how much she wants to lick his chest.

She stands in the hallway, breathing deeply, practicing some of the suggestions Stefan gave her, and she almost starts laughing hysterically at the idea that Stefan taught her that to breathe her way through bloodlust, and now she's using it just to breathe her way through regular lust.

_For his brother._

She goes downstairs and gets a glass of bourbon from the ready stash there. She downs two tumblers full before she hears Damon's shower shut off. She gives him what she hopes is enough time to get dressed, and then she makes her way carefully back up the stairs.

He meets her in the hallway, fully dressed and obviously off to whatever his next project is. He's got the stake in his hand and he presents it to her with a little bow. She inclines her head and reaches for it, and then he jerks it away with an, "Ah, ah, ah. Not so fast, my little badass."

"Damon..."

"Look," he says, and the tone in his voice is no longer a joking one. "I tried to kill her, too, right after...it's not going to be easy. And if she gets the upper hand, _she will kill you_. Now, since respecting your _choices_ —" he uses air quotes "—is all the rage, I'm giving this to you. Not because I think this is a good idea, but because if you rip my room apart further, I will be forced to kill you myself. So, just know I'm giving this to you _reluctantly_ and when my baby bro asks, you should be clear with him that this is not my idea. Like _all_ of your ideas, it's a bad one. You'll probably end up dead. But at least I won't have to miss you _and_ deal with a mess in my bedroom. Okay? Okay."

He hands her the stake and she tries to accept it graciously, not rip it out of his hands and call him a smart ass at the same time. But she recognizes the truths in the middle of all that smart-assery, and she has a moment.

A long one, where she wants to hug him.

It's not often she feels that way; with Damon anymore, it's either murder or sex, and now those things are blurring in her amplified mind. But for just a second, there's tenderness again, the way it had been once between them, the way that she misses when she lets herself think about it. (The way it had been outside the church when he promised her she'd be okay.)

"Be careful," he says, stepping around her. "And I'll try not to get Jeremy killed."

She spins around. "Damon!" But he's already gone, down the stairs, and out the door. She hears the Camaro rev up, and then she knows she's really alone.

(Before she leaves, she straightens up his bedroom.)

 

 

When Jeremy gets home from the hospital, Elena's there, and she tells him about the venom-beer from Rebekah's party. He apologizes profusely and then endures a lecture on not hanging out with or trying to help Damon with his stupid schemes.

If she hadn't already been through hell these last couple of weeks, he'd argue the point, but he figures he can let her have this one. He's not going to change anything he's been doing, because Damon gets stuff done, and Jeremy had already decided that if his sister was going to be a vampire then his only choice was to protect her at all costs. To protect Elena means to protect all vampires, particularly the Salvatores. And Damon might not want to acknowledge it, but Jeremy knew he'd helped today.

Without him, they wouldn't have gotten Connor, and that's the bottom line.

He's in the bathroom brushing his teeth for bed when he hears a big commotion below him. As he hurries down the stairs, the front door slams. He rounds the foot of the staircase, and is surprised to see Damon and Elena in the kitchen. She's breathing heavily, crying, it sounds like, and Damon says, "And I'm gonna teach you."

He wants to rush forward and ask what's happening, but then Elena is in Damon's arms, and they're just standing there while she cries. Damon whispers shushing noises into her hair and holds her; other than the time he caught them making out, this is the first time he's seen something like this between them. And that something keeps Jeremy from interrupting. No matter how much he loves his sister, he doesn't understand what she's going through. And as big of a dick as Damon can be, the only thing Jeremy knows for sure is that he too loves Elena.

So he quietly goes out on the porch, and waits for Damon to come out.

It's only ten minutes later when the front door opens and Damon says a quiet, "Goodnight," to Elena. As the door shuts, he stops abruptly when he sees Jeremy sitting on the porch swing. "What're you doing out here?" he asks.

"Is she okay?" Jeremy asks, gesturing towards the house.

Damon's gaze drops to the porch for a second, and he takes a deep breath. "She'll get there. She got a little overzealous with the Quarterback. So, I'm gonna show her some...better ways to get what she needs."

"Is that what she wants?" Jeremy asks.

Damon nods, all seriousness, and that makes Jeremy sit up straighter. "It's what she wants, Jer, and it's what she _needs_. You don't want her to end up like my brother, too crazy for his own good one day, and completely, utterly boring the next. I can show her how to function, in the middle."

Jeremy's not totally sure of that, considering Damon's had his own crazy periods, too. One, in fact, that ended with Jeremy dead on the bedroom floor. But he can see that he means what he says, and it's not like Jeremy knows how to help Elena. "Okay," he says and he stands up and walks across the porch until he and Damon are just an arms' length apart. He sticks out his hand. Damon looks a little confused, but then he reaches out and shakes Jeremy's hand.

"Are we making a deal?" Damon asks with a small smile.

"Admit what I did tonight was badass," Jeremy says.

Damon laughs and draws his hand away. He walks down the porch steps toward his car. "You've got to earn that title, Young Master Gilbert." At the foot of the stairs, he turns back. "Stick with me, Jer, you'll get there." He throws a wink at him and Jeremy can't help but smile.

Dick. Badass. Protector. 

It's funny how all of those words describe Damon Salvatore.


End file.
